Our minds and bodies are in constant flux, responding to every thought, changing in minute and often undetectable ways. Whether these thoughts travel through our conscious brain or exist in our quieter subconscious, our brain is constantly at work.
So what is the power of thought?
Every time we think about something, no matter how small or insignificant, our brain releases neurotransmitters. These are the chemicals that connect all the parts of your brain to the rest of your nervous system. It’s almost a magical process; the way your brain can conjure a thought, sending a signal to your body, bringing your thoughts to life.
This process occurs in our subconscious minds, so imagine the power intentional thought can yield. Studies show that focused thinking can improve strength and vision, along with reducing fatigue, stress, and anxiety. On a neurochemical level, focused thoughts can elevate dopamine and serotonin. It’s even been hypothesized that the placebo effect is one of the powerful effects to indicate the power of thought.
Thoughts And Your Brain
A thought is an electrical impulse, sending information through your synapses, which then release neurotransmitters. These signals, depending on the type and intensity, change the structure of your brain while also impacting its functionality. This is a complicated process that physically restructures your brain — sometimes temporarily, other times permanently. In short, this means every single thought, regardless of whether it’s large or small, impacts your brain.
One way to restructure your brain and strengthen these connections is by running a specific thought over and over. This repetition hits a specific region in your brain, depending on what the thought is and the intensity of the neurotransmitter release. Each time the same thought runs, it makes connections with the surrounding areas, creating new neurons and synapses. These new connections create neural pathways, and every impulse sent down this new path carves the connection deeper, making the pathway faster and stronger.
Beyond engraving neural connections, repetitive thoughts change the entire neural structure in your brain. A study done with college students demonstrated this structural change. Using students who were in love, they were shown photos of their partners while their brain activity was measured. When looking at the photo, their reward center was activated. Subsequently, they were asked to simply think of their partner and researchers noted that the same area in their brain became activated. This area was larger and more easily activated when thinking of or looking at a photograph of the person they loved when compared to other items that similarly activated the same reward center, demonstrating an actual structural change related specifically to the person they love.
This change indicates why it takes time to recover from breakups, as every time we think of that individual, the reward center activates. However, in the event of a break up the activation is then followed with sadness instead of joy. This begins the process of changing the neural structure away from the reward. Our emotional healing is directly tied to our brain restructuring itself.
Thoughts On A Cellular Level
Thoughts impact our brains on the cellular level. Each time we think, we are sending electrical signals through our brain. How we interpret these thoughts is the result of electrochemical reactions occurring as a direct response to these signals. These reactions are translated to emotional responses, giving the individual cell the language of sadness, guilt, anger, happiness. As the cell increasingly experiences these emotional signals, it changes its structure, creating more receptors for that specific signal to be more easily read and translated within the cell. As the cell further divides, replicating itself, these new changes are applied to the new cells.
Understanding how these cells change in our brains has become important to understanding brain health. Areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus have been documented to shrink in relation to disease, poor diet, and long-term stress. But we also know that we can grow the hippocampus as well.
A study on taxi drivers showed that they have larger hippocampi, one of the main areas in the limbic system responsible for visual-spatial memory. In order to memorize the vast number of streets, the hippocampus grew to accommodate and support their memory requirements. The growth supports their ability to recall information, while the deep neural pathways allow for faster thought processing.
Conclusion
We tend to believe our thoughts are simple things; sometimes popping into consciousness randomly, while other times they are summoned at will. But the truth is, it’s a very complicated process and every thought is capable of rewiring and restructuring our brain. And it all depends on a lot of factors. However, by actively being aware of the power of thoughts, it is possible to hardwire your brain towards a more optimistic thought process by having healthy habits and a focus on positive thinking.
In the age of neuroscience, we are capable of enhancing our mindset by understanding how our brain and body work, down to the cellular level. Focused thinking will change your habits giving you a changed mentality. Which makes a single thought one of the most powerful tools to change your life.
